Gila Gila Gila

The night after staying in Gila Bend in Arizona we ended up at Gila Hot Springs in New Mexico (and the next day at Gila Cliff Dwellings). The hot springs were at the end of a tiny twisting mountain road that looked like it would take about 20-30 minutes on the map, but took one and a half hours to navigate in reality.

There were a few different campgrounds – but this one won the prize with it’s outdoor communal kitchen. I’ve been wanting to do something like this at A-Z West so that people have a sheltered functional area to cook in when they camp in the wash.

And I’m a huge sucker for ACX plywood and simple fir 2x6s (as the furniture in the HDTS HQ will attest). Even the bathroom, a converted mobile home, was glowing with wooden goldness.

And not too far down the same road was another totally different kind of communal living situation. The Gilla Cliff Dwellings were amazingly complex in their network of small interconnected rooms which originally were entered from above – their roofs creating a large platform for the inhabitants living functions.